Archaeologists in Taiwan have uncovered the fossilized remains of a mother holding an infant, and experts say they are 4,800 years old.
According to
Reuters, the discovery was made in the Taichung region, just north of the midpoint on the island nation. Forty-six other sets of human remains were found at the site, which provide the earliest indication of human activity in Taichung.
"When it was unearthed, all of the archaeologists and staff members were shocked. Why? Because the mother was looking down at the baby in her hands," Chu Whei-lee, a curator in the Anthropology Department at Taiwan's National Museum of Natural Science, told Reuters.
BBC World News posted a video report onto YouTube.
Excavation of the site began in May 2014 and was completed a year later. Researchers used carbon dating to determine the age of the remains.
Of the 48 sets of remains discovered, five were children and 43 were adults.
It was reported
in February that archaeologists in Israel unearthed a 7,000-year-old settlement in northern Jerusalem, the oldest discovery of its kind in that area.
And
in Laos earlier this month, archaeologists said they found a burial site with human remains that are estimated to be 2,500 years old.
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